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Marine mammal trainers do difficult, dangerous work for an average of around $30,000 a year. Not exactly big money. I do agree that you can't make it completely safe and the trainers are well aware of that.
And all of you yammering about how mistreated all performing animals are, how many have first-hand experience? Or do you just rely on propaganda? There are many bad trainers and organizations out there, I wouldn't dream of denying that. But I know first-hand of one small organization that works with sea lions and regardless of what you think about marine mammals in captivity, these particular creatures are treated very well and never abused. They are trained strictly with positive reinforcement and every effort is made to keep them comfortable and as happy as possible. So please, do go after the bad guys but don't paint everyone with the same brush.
The bottom line is this. Those animals are kept at Seaworld to make a profit, not for the benefit of the individual animals or the species at large.
It now appears that the particular animal has been involved in the deaths of two other people before. One in California and one in Canada.
IF Sea World has been moving that thing around every time it kills someone (and it appears they have), they own a measure of culpability for keeping the damn thing.
Someone asked for more info on my post concerning the Orcas I've witnessed being killers out in the ocean. heres my first person account.
Back in the 70s-80s, when I commercially fished for salmon with a troll boat the salmon used to collect around the Farrallon islands off the coast of San Francisco and fatten up on baby rock fish that spawned around the Islands. The local boats would fish around the islands during the day and anchor up in the lee of the islands at night. There was a mother grey whale and her calf that seemed to hang around the island one season and for some reason. One night while I was anchored up she and her calf just appeared alongside my boat and lay alongside, motionless throughout the night. Myself and crew were amazed by the sight and I even reached down with a long handled deck brush and scrubbed at her barnacles on her head. All through the night we could hear her snuffling through her blowhole. The following night she was back again with her calf. We all thought something magical and mystical was going on and I felt truly blessed by the incident.
On the morning after the second night of "sleeping with the whales", My crew and I pulled anchor and went fishing for the day. About 8AM and about 300 yds off there was a hugh commotion in the water up ahead. I figured is was a feeding frenzy of salmon and predator and naturally tacked over to the spot to see if I could catch some. It was the mother and calf and a pod of 5 orcas, 4 adults and 1 juvenile. There was blood in the water and they were ripping the calf apart while the mother kept charging the pod ineffectively. It was a very, very sad scene and I tacked away from the area not wanting to witness the situation.
The lesson I learned was that it was not mystical or magic that that whale and her calf lay along side my fishboat for two nights running. She was hiding out from the pod of killers she knew was in the area due to the abundance of salmon, trying to protect her calf. My fishboat gave her cover for those nights. People tend to give human motives to animals and they are never right. It's never what it seems. The Tiger who jumps the fence in San Francisco, The chimp who is treated like a child for 30 years and then rips the face off a human in a rage, It's all wrong to try and imprint human characteristics on animals unless they want us to. For dogs and cats, it's different. The first dog to lurk near the fire of prehistoric man chose domestication. The first cat to hunt the rats in man's food storage bin also made that choice. No monkey or bear, or tiger or killer whale ever said "keep me, feed me and I'll protect your food source and be your companion.
The problem with killer whales is that they thrive on group social interaction. Once you separate them from their pod for many years, they are incapable of surviving alone in the wild. Most likely be killed by it's own kind as a Ronin. In my experience, animals never do anything on a whim. Everything they do has a purpose. I believe that this animal is frustrated and gone psycho because of the endless isolation from it's natural habitat and it's own kind.
I like watching animals do cool tricks as much as the next guy but come on people, getting into a swimming pool with an Animal with the word "Killer" in its official name.... that can eat you in one gulp.....
Has anyone noticed how bipartisan this issue is on here? It's amazing. Maybe Obama can start with a short discussion of killer whales in captivity before launching in to health care reform today.
So in other words the be cruel to a few to save many?
Does that really work for you?
That makes the basic assumption fallacy that captivity and performing in themselves are torture, which I don't believe (and certainly has no proof, I do know zoologists). It certainly is less torture then a life of day to day life or death struggle between hard fought food supplies, environmental dangers, and competitors. They don't beat the animals to perform or inflict pain, the fish they feed them are more of the ones to feel sorry for there. Just being in the pens without doing anything for smart, energetic, and inquisitive creatures is more torture then performing IMHO.
I like watching animals do cool tricks as much as the next guy but come on people, getting into a swimming pool with an Animal with the word "Killer" in its official name.... that can eat you in one gulp.....
is... Darwin-esk?
I suppose this would qualify for the annual Darwin awards.
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